Many NBA scouts weren’t caught off guard by Crawford’s highly-productive season. They were well aware of his myriad of talents when he was a freshman at Indiana University.

That’s when he had some memorable practices against then Hoosiers guard Eric Gordon, who wound up being the seventh overall selection in the 2008 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Clippers.

Some people who witnessed those Indiana workouts swear Crawford was often as good or better than Gordon.

“I heard that from time to time from players on the team, saying stuff like that,’’ Crawford said. “I really wanted to compete against him.

“He was the best player on the team, so every day in practice I wanted to go at him.’’

Considering the Undisciplined One was rather boom and bust that season — flashes of brilliance mixed with some typical freshman mistakes — it’s not out of the realm of possibility that on his best days he could have matched Gordon here and there.

For now, the Cavaliers’ interest appears to be strictly in the fact-finding phase, but some league personnel believe it’s just a matter of time until Sampson becomes a legitimate head coaching candidate in the NBA.

This comes on the heels of a report from K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune that Sampson could draw interest from the Bulls in their search. Sampson worked a lot with rookie Brandon Jennings this year as a member of the Bucks’ staff, and though Jennings’ shot still needs plenty of work, he garnered some rookie-of-the-year consideration. Dude also tossed up 55 points in a game during the first half of the season, and was the team’s leader at the point for a team that made the playoffs and nearly upset the Hawks in the first round.

Tyreke Evans and Stephen Curry are talented, no doubt, but they weren’t getting the type of experience Jennings was this year at the point. They may not have gotten the coaching Jennings got either.

You can criticize Sampson for other things, but his coaching prowess — after only two years in the pro ranks — is already garnering him some consideration for head-coaching jobs. That’s impressive stuff any way you slice it.

Oh, and just before I was set to hit publish, here’s a tweet that just came through from the well-connected Brain Windhorst of the Cleveland Plain Dealer: “Sources confirm Yahoo! report about Cavs’ interest in Bucks asst. coach Kelvin Sampson. In fact, I’m told he may be near top of list.”

And then this tweet from Woj: “The Clippers are also showing an interest in Bucks assistant Kelvin Sampson, sources tell Y! Sampson has relationship with Blake Griffin.”

It’s been nearly two full years since we last said goodbye to the mess begotten of Kelvin Sampson’s late-night departure in 2008. The faces have nearly faded, so much so that it’s almost easy to forget that at least some of them are still out there, trying to put an orange ball in a round iron hoop for someone’s enjoyment.

Enter Paul Daugherty of SI.com, who brings us this brief piece about Jordan Crawford finally settling in at Xavier. Crawford, you’ll recall, was essentially the last of Sampson’s one-time recruits to leave Indiana, heading east to play for Sean Miller.

Then Sean Miller left for Arizona.

Just like Kelvin Sampson had, albeit under different circumstances.

The article talks about the post-Sampson period briefly before delving into Crawford’s transition to Xavier. Both Crawford and his mother Sylvia (who is a publicist for the city of Detroit? Yeesh.) talk with Daugherty, making both good points:

“I wish all the grown people with the power would realize the situations they leave these young people in,” (Sylvia Crawford) said. “You trust they’re on top of things. You put a lot of trust in the university. It challenges my faith in them. Why is the kid the one punished?”

And bad:

Crawford said he knew it was time to leave when he saw one of the last Hoosiers holdovers, Brandon McGee, running stadium steps in the rain, as punishment for being late to study hall.”He was two or three minutes late,” Crawford said. “It was after the first day of summer classes. No homework. I was thinking, if they’re going to do him like that, they’re going to do me like that, too.”

Another site, eBaum Nation, has a much higher-quality video of the dunk from a better angle. Take a look at that here. Perhaps TMZ, which wasn’t supposed to put it up on their site until tonight after it debuted on their TV show, found out about eBaum Nation’s better video, so they decided to release theirs early. No word on where or how the eBaum people got their hands on it. Yet.

Anyway, enough about the particulars of where the video resides online. Let’s talk about the dunk. It’s anti-climatic. But that’s what everyone was expecting. The dunk was basically a Paul Bunyon-esque tall tale a few weeks back, but now that it’s right in front of our eyes, well, it’s not that great. Former Hoosier Jordan Crawford still dunked on LeBron James. But James was late sliding over in transition; he barely puts any effort into defending.

So yes. There you have it. Crawford gets his day in the sun. We all finally get to see the video. Now when is Hoosier Hysteria?

The last time most Indiana University fans thought about Jordan Crawford was probably June 11, 2008. That was the day when Crawford announced he would not return to Bloomington for his sophomore season. Some of you probably cried when you realized that Kyle Taber was the last man standing.

Crawford decided a month later that he would transfer to Xavier and with Sean Miller’s departure for Arizona, he’ll suit up next year for first year coach Chris Mack.

When I think back about Crawford’s season at IU, two things immediately come to mind: 1) He was an incredibly talented and gifted player with a boatload of potential; and 2) He was often erratic and downright frustrating to watch. Some of you even referred to him as “TUO” or “The Undisciplined One.”

Based on point No. 1, it really didn’t surprise me that Crawford reportedly posterized LeBron James the other day in Akron. What did surprise me is the amount of coverage this dunk, which we will probably never see, is garnering across the Web. Here’s a healthy sampling:

There’s a lot of good things about the World Wide Leader. Two of my favorite college basketball writers, Pat Forde and Andy Katz, work there. Most of their programming looks spectacular in HD. And they give Colleen Dominguez and Wendy Nix ample face time. (Can we stop with the Erin Andrews fascination already? Thank you, E.)

But as cutting edge and up-to the minute as the Bristol overlords want you to believe their reporting is, sometimes they take 18-day old news and make it their top story. Case in point today: Jordan Crawford to Xavier.

Perhaps Crawford to Xavier was top story worthy. He was, after all, the last in a line of mass defections from Bloomington. Problem is, it was already reported back on July 10. Somebody fell asleep at the keyboard!

Editor’s Note: Don’t forget to submit your list of the top 10 Indiana players of all-time.